1940-1945

Florida becomes a 65,000 square mile wartime aviation training ground

Pilot training ramped up

On June 27, 1939, with war clouds looming ever larger on the horizon, the Roosevelt administration created a WPA-funded Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) to meet the anticipated demand for wartime pilots and navigators. The program initially proposed to train 11,000 pilots a year, drawn from universities and colleges. It also made it possible for African Americans and women to train for jobs in the formerly somewhat exclusive field of aviation. CPTP contracts also automatically enrolled all male trainees into the Army Reserve. In the 18 months before the United States entered the war, the number of pilots in the country rose from 31,000 to over 100,000, primarily as a result of the success of the Civilian Pilot Training Program.

From civilian to military flier: CPTP under Army command

After the United States entered into the war, President Roosevelt, on December 13, 1941, issued Executive Order 8974 which authorized the Secretary of War to take control of civil aviation. From then on, the CPTP was run as an Army training program. Only men between the ages of 18-37 were eligible to enroll. Army Air Corps Commander Major General Henry H. (“Hap”) Arnold proposed that civilian flight training schools become Army contractors under the CPTP. The Army would provide the curriculum and the planes. The civilian schools would provide the training, room and board, and instructors. The schools would be paid an hourly rate based on the number of flying hours.

A natural training ground

Florida’s climate and topography made it a natural choice for both defensive and offensive military training operations. Between 1939 and 1945, according to World War II historian Anthony Atwood (“A State of War: Florida from 1939 to 1945”), it was turned into a “65,000 square mile training ground, supply dump and embarkation site vital to the U.S. war effort.”

British RAF Cadets join Florida CPTP Schools

Mobilization for war also brought international aviators to Florida. Under the Lend Lease Act, foreigners were permitted to be trained on U.S.-made equipment. Great Britain was in dire need of pilots but constant bombardments by the Luftwaffe greatly handicapped training activities in the British Isles. General Arnold proposed allowing British flight cadets to enroll in American CPTP schools for twenty-week flight training courses. Beginning with the summer of 1941, thousands of British RAF cadets arrived in Florida, fanning out to training schools across the state to study alongside American counterparts.

Mechanics and mission readiness: expanding CPTP in 1942

In July of 1942, the CPTP Act was expanded to provide for training of civilian aircraft mechanics. One such example was Pan American Airways’ Miami Maintenance Training School program, created in August of 1942. It was so successful that the Army asked Pan Am to include Army pilots and mechanics in the program. By March 1944, Pan Am had trained 2788 students at the school.

Florida’s wartime aviation academies

Among the notable Florida CPTP training schools that turned out thousands of pilots and navigators over the course of the war, including R.A.F. pilots, were Pan American Airways pilot and navigation training school at the University of Miami (which included activities at Dinner Key and NW 36th Street) from which nearly 5000 trainees were graduated by the end of the war. The Lodwick School of Aeronautics in Lakeland, which relocated from Nebraska to Florida, graduated 6,000 wartime pilots. The Greenville Flying Academy of Mississippi moved to Ocala and graduated nearly 5,000 cadets. The largest of the CPT training schools, Embry-Riddle, opened several flight training schools around the state, principally in Miami, Arcadia, Clewiston and Daytona Beach. Embry-Riddle, a powerhouse of Florida wartime aviation training, graduated over 2200 R.A.F. pilots alone.

At left: Maj. Gen. “Hap” Arnold, WWII Commander of the U.S. Army Air Corps. “New Horizons” magazine, December 1941, courtesy UM Richter Library Pan Am Digital Collection
Above: Scenes from Pan American Airways pilot and navigation training school conducted in conjunction with the University of Miami. “New Horizons,” December 1941. Courtesy UM Richter Library Pan Am Digital Collection
Below: Women students participate in the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Dale Mabry Airport in Tallahassee, FL circa 1940. Image courtesy Florida Memory State Archives

Third Air Force in Action

Florida was also the home of the Army Air Corps Southeast Air Base, one of the U.S. Army Air Corps’ four bases located in the four quadrants of the continental United States. The Southeast Air Base, operating as the Third Air Force, became active in Tampa in December 1940. Its mission was to protect all the southeastern states — Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. The Tampa base was formally dedicated on April 16, 1941 as MacDill Field. The Third Air Force also established a second base across town at Tampa’s city airport, Drew Field Municipal Airport.

As described by historian Atwood, “From MacDill and Drew, and Hillsborough Army Airfield a few miles north, the Third Air Force spread across the State. St. Petersburg, Bradenton, Venice, Sarasota, Fort Meyers, Naples, Punta Gorda, Immokalee, Sebring, Bartow, Lakeland, Brooksville, Bushnell, Cross City, Dunnellon, Kissimmee, Leesburg, Gainesville, Montebrook, Zephyrhills and Panama City all hosted Army Air Fields for bomber and fighter plane training.”

Fighter pilot training was also established at Dale Mabry Airport in Tallahassee. Eglin Army Airfield in the western Florida Panhandle was greatly expanded by the transfer of 341,000 acres of Choctawatchee National Forest to the base by Congress — an area half the size of Rhode Island. It was the Army Air Corps’ largest U.S. base and is still one of the largest air bases in the world. In Central Florida, Orlando Municipal Airport was taken over and reopened as Orlando Air Base in 1940. Morrison Army Airfield in West Palm Beach and Miami Army Airfield were established in South Florida. By December 1941, the Air Corps had established no less than 40 Army Airfields in Florida that were either fully operational or in various stages of construction.

Legacy of lift-off

Florida’s emergence as a critical military aviation training ground and base of air transport operations had a profound and lasting impact on the state. The Army Air Fields built in Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Fort Lauderdale were all donated to their respective communities after the war. These airports helped Florida to build upon the identity it had assumed during the war as a leading hub of international aviation.

At right: “Growth of Florida Airports During the War,” reprinted from “A State of War: Florida from 1939 to 1945,” by Anthony Atwood, Florida International University, FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 10-25-2012 (see link, below).